A woman who cussed and shouted at a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting was sentenced to 18 months of probation Tuesday.
Carolyn Rodriguez, who goes by Carolina, was found guilty of hindering a meeting by disorderly conduct on Monday. At a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting in January, she protested meeting rules that banned swearing by rattling off a list of swears.
County Judge Tim O’Hare kicked her out of the meeting, and she shouted “[Expletive] you!” and yelled as she got arrested.
Rodriguez’s defense team tried to argue her free speech rights had been violated, but Judge Brian Bolton decided the crime wasn’t a speech issue. The prosecution said throughout the trial Monday it’s not about what Rodriguez said, but how disruptive she was when she said it.
Rodriguez's attorney Mark Streiff said he plans to appeal the conviction.
"The facts boil down to saying swear words," he said. "It's not the end of the world. It's 2025. Tons of people swear."
Rodriguez spoke directly to the jury Tuesday before they decided on her sentence. She believed her speech was protected, she said.
"I thought I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” she said.
Bolton also banned Rodriguez from attending commissioners court meetings as a condition of her probation. Rodriguez will have to serve 270 days in jail and pay a $2,000 fine if she violates the rules.
Rodriguez is a YouTuber whose channel, Carolina in Fort Worth, has almost 100,000 subscribers. She’s a cop watcher who films interactions with the police.
Prosecutors used a previous video, where she filmed herself entering an unlocked county building and pulling up her channel on a county computer, to argue she is a sensationalist who just wants views. She was convicted of a computer security breach in 2019.
She’s embarrassed by that video now, Rodriguez said. But she stands by her cop watching videos.
“I don’t get why we’re the bad guys when we’re exposing bad cops,” she said.
Prosecutor Lloyd Whelchel asked the jury to give Rodriguez the maximum possible penalty of a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. He brought up her December conviction for interfering with public duties, which she is appealing.
Rodriguez was supposed to stay away from police as a condition of her bond, but she has violated that, as proven by her continued YouTube videos, Whelchel said.
“Can you imagine having to deal with her just for doing your job?” he said.
When asked for comment after the trial, Whelchel said KERA News needed to go to the district attorney's public information officer first. This story will be updated with any response.
Rodriguez denied violating her bond. Her defense attorney, Mark Streiff, pointed out that Rodriguez was seriously injured in her arrest for that crime. Fort Worth police fired Officer Matthew Krueger for excessive force.
Streiff asked the jury to sentence her to probation, or one day in jail with a $5 fine – a dollar for every swear word.
“This is not an offense we should send somebody to the county jail for a year,” he said.
Charles Hermes was also arrested at the Jan. 28 meeting and faces the same charge as Rodriguez. He clapped for a speaker after O’Hare warned him to stop. His trial is scheduled for September, Streiff said.
His arrest could have a chilling effect, Hermes previously told KERA News. Hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct is the highest level of misdemeanor and could land someone with a yearlong jail sentence.
"If we want to live in a society where people aren't afraid to go to the commissioners court and express their concerns about our county, they can't worry that they're going to be facing Class A misdemeanors for something as silly as clapping," he said.
A Texas Civil Rights Project attorney told KERA News the charges were “a pretty grotesque abuse of the criminal law to silence public participation in government.”
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org.
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